Obituary

Willy Jump, PFLAG NYC Pioneer, Dies at 83 – Gay City News

May 3rd, 2020

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Willy Jump (right) with her son Frank and Amy Ashworth, marching with PFLAG in the 1987 New York City Pride March.

Willy Jump was born Willy Broekveldt in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on August 2, 1936 of Frisian origins. Willy emigrated to the United States in 1958 to marry Harold Jump, whom she had met in Amsterdam while Jump was stationed in Germany during the Korean War a few years prior. In the early 1970s, I came out to my parents and Willy pledged to help other parents cope with learning about their children’s sexual orientation.

My mother first marched with me at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979, for which I was part of the planning the year before in Philadelphia as a representative of Gay People at Queens College.

Amsterdam-born activist Mom succumbed to complication of COVID-19

We went backstage to meet some of the parents from what was then called National Parents of Gays — and we met the New York City PFLAG co-chairs Amy and Dick Ashworth. Willy was immediately drawn to Amy since they looked like sisters (and later became as close as sisters) and my mom heard a Dutch accent that they shared in common.

The following summer of 1980 was Willy’s first of more than 20 consecutive years marching in the New York City Pride March with PFLAG. Parents of Gays had briefly become POLAGM — Parents of Lesbians & Gay Men — before becoming PFLAG. My suggestion to the PFLAG board one year to continue our course of ever greater inclusion in the organization’s name was to call ourselves PFLABAGASTR — Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Bisexuals & Gays & Sometimes Transgenders. They didn’t go for it.

In 1980 when the Pride Parade was still a “march,” I told my mom to meet me on the corner of Bedford & Christopher Streets an hour before the march actually began its lurch uptown toward Central Park — thinking it wouldn’t be that crowded yet.

So there I was looking for Willy amongst the throngs of leather queens, drag queens, dykes on bikes, and twinks, screaming, “MOM! MOM?” on a lamp post I had climbed. Almost immediately this handsome older guy with an impish smile and a little space between his teeth came up to me and tugged at my pant leg, shouting over the din in an incredibly hoarse voice that seemed incongruous to his appearance — putting his fingernail up to his mouth to hide his incredulity — “You really aren’t looking for your MOM but some big queen you call MOM — right?”

“No, I said, slowly realizing who it was that was inquiring. “I really am looking for my Mom.”

Then in rapid-fire, breathy-dragon-voice that sputtered like a typewriter on steroids, he shouted, “OH MY GOD! If my mother would just even acknowledge my being gay let alone come march with me! COME MARCH WITH ME? I could just die right now and go to heaven a happy drag queen. Do you know how lucky you are? I have to meet this WOMAN! MOM! MOM! MOM!”

And almost as soon as he had appeared, so did my mother.

“Hi Frankie. Who is your friend?”

“This is the infamous Harvey Fierstein,” I proudly exclaimed.

“Points! Points! You are scoring here,” Harvey raspily whispered. “And this is my mother, Willy Jump,” I continued.

Harvey grabbed my mother around the neck and planted a wet one on her cheek.

Coincidentally, the two of them would run into each other for the next decade at LGBTQ events and panel discussions. When I ran into Harvey repeatedly over the years — from his book signings to rides on the subway while he was going to the theater to perform “Torch Song” to spotting him on parade floats — he always gave me a warm greeting, “HOW’S YOUR MOTHER?”

Willy volunteered at PFLAG for more than 20 years, counseling parents of LGBTQ children and fundraising for the group’s annual dinners.

Willy Jump and Amy Ashworth, marching together again in the 1992 Pride March.

On Facebook, on the day I announced my mother’s death, my friend Jay Blotcher wrote, “What a dynamo she was! What joyous energy and awareness and defiance. I’m so sorry she has left us. Willy was a perfect surrogate mother for a generation of ACT UP and LGBTQ people… her passing is a loss to the entire progressive community.”

Willy Broekveldt Jump died on April 22 of complications related to COVID-19 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Donations in the name of Willy Jump can be made to:

PFLAG NYC
130 East 25th Street, Suite M1
New York, NY 10010

Make checks payable to PFLAG NYC. Donations can also be made in memory of Willy Jump at pflagnyc.org/donate.

Frank Jump, who worked alongside his mother Willy Jump for many years in PFLAG and other LGBTQ rights activism, is an artist and educator and the author of “Fading Ads of NYC” (History Press, 2011).

https://www.gaycitynews.com/willy-jump-pflag-nyc-pioneer-dies-at-83/

Thank you Paul Schindler & Andy Humm

Andy Humm

May 1 at 11:58 PM ·

Willy Jump, right in the photo, was the cool mom in PFLAG which she served as a parent advocate for 25 years. Here her son, activist and teacher Frank Jump, pays moving tribute to her and their life of activism together going back to attending the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights together in 1979. The other mom in this picture (at left) from a NYC Pride March is the late Amy Ashworth, like Willy from Holland and like Willy a tireless activist for LGBT rights and social justice for all. Most have no idea how much these moms accomplished–from joining us on the front lines to speaking to school groups to going on TV to stick up for their kids to the essential work of PFLAG: helping parents accept their LGBT children. Rest in power.

Harold “Bud” H. Jump, Jr. – August 28, 1933 – July 5, 2017

Jul 5th, 2017

by Frank.

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Harold Jump’s H.S. Yearbook

Harold “Bud” H. Jump, Jr. © Frank H. Jump

Hal Jump hailed from Stamford NY and enlisted in the Korean War with the expectation of coming home in a box as a war hero. Hal was handy with electronics and was immediately sent to Germany to learn about radio transistors electronics, and code. Jump was discharged from the Army with a toolbox and enrolled in the RCA Institute of Electronics where he furthered his electronics skills set.

(Harold & Willy when they first met at the Kleine Astoria in Amsterdam circa 1957 – couple on the right) © Frank H. Jump

Jump lived at the Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street in NYC while going to school and very shortly after completing his studies got a job with PanAmerican Airways as an avionics technician, where he learned how to take apart and reassemble commercial airplanes. Jump married my mother Willy in late 1958. Willy and Harold met in Amsterdam when he was stationed in Germany. Jump continued working for PanAm up through the companies heyday. During this time he also moonlighted for an air conditioning company called Weston’s on Metropolitan Avenue in Queens. In 1969, Jump was sent to Roswell New Mexico to test the new Boeing 747, where they took it on test runs to see how much stress the wings would take on parabolic rises and falls. Jump never quite enjoyed flying after that experience.

Hal Jump (circa 1985) © Frank H. Jump

In 1980, he told me he was going to leave PanAm to work for the U.S. Postal Service as a computer programmer for the new zip code mail sorting machines in the Jamaica Queens division near Kennedy Airport. Jump worked both jobs until he was ready to transition full-time to the Postal Service. In preparation for this, Jump was sent to Norman, Oklahoma to study computer programming and maintenance and later completed more coursework in Milwaukee, WI in 1974. It was around this time he met his future second wife Anne Rich. Willy and Harold were living together but in separation until their divorce in 1985.

Harold Jump & Anne Rich in the 1990s

After his divorce with Willy, he remarried Anne Rich and moved briefly to Long Beach, LI until he left the Post Office and moved back to Stamford, NY where he worked as a school bus operator. After several years of commuting back and forth from Upstate NY to Whitestone where Anne’s family lived, they finally settled back in Whitestone where they lived until Anne’s death three years back in November of 2013.

Jump lived alone in Whitestone until a fall landed him in Menorah Rehabilitation and Nursing in Manhattan Beach Brooklyn with a subdural hematoma. Jump never recovered from his injury sustained from his fall and died nine months later. He is survived by his son Frank H. Jump, his sister Ann Jump (Estero, Florida), and step-daughters Linda Rich (Manhattan) and Debra Rich and grandchildren Jon-Peter and Bianca Pezzino (Whitestone).

Jump in 2010s

Services for Harold Jump will be held on July 7, 2017 @ 11AM at
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE AT ST. BERNARD
328 WEST 14TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10014

R.D. Grier & Sons Co., Industrial Supplies – Machine Shop – Salisbury, MD

Nov 27th, 2016

by Frank.

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Robert David Grier was born in Milford, Delaware on October 27, 1856 of English immigrants from South Shields, England. By 1888, Grier had set up a foundry with his brothers on East Railroad Avenue in what is now called “The Red Light District” of Salisbury, MD according to Instagram. On June 15, 1920, Grier was killed in a grade-crossing accident just south of Salisbury in Westover, MD.

National Cyclopedia of American Biographies 1922 © Google Books

National Cyclopedia of American Biography 1922 © Google Books

Smith Ford – Denton, MD – Oliver “Ollie” L. Smith Obituary – Milton DE

Jul 25th, 2016

by Frank.

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Founded Smith Ford in Denton MD © The Star Democrat

O. Frumin & Sons – Scrap Iron – Metals – Chattanooga, TN

May 24th, 2016

by Frank.

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Institute of Scrap Iron & Steel, 1949

Frumin, Sylvia
Family Operated Frumin Scrap Metal
Friday, March 12, 2004
Sylvia Sher Frumin, 89, died Thursday, March 11, 2004.

Born on June 27, 1914, in New York, Mrs. Frumin lived in Birmingham, Ala., from infancy until 1937, when she married Abe Frumin and moved to Chattanooga. She currently resided in Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Abe. Abe Frumin, along with his late brother Jake, operated Frumin Scrap Metal in Chattanooga for many years.

Survivors include sons, Harvey Frumin and wife, Rita of Farmington Hills, Mich., Fulton “Butch” Frumin and wife, Susan of Dothan, Ala., Marshall Frumin and wife, Charlett of Sugar Land; grandchildren, Steven, Jeffrey, Beth, Zaron, Jonathan and Kim Frumin and Dori Frumin Kirshner and husband, David; brother, Frank Sher and wife, Marilee of Memphis; sisters-in-law, Sally Sher of Birmingham and Sema Frumin of Coconut Creek, Fla.

Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Sunday at B’nai Zion Cemetery in Chattanooga with Rabbi Joseph Davidson of Congregation B’nai Zion officiating.

In lieu of flowers, family suggests donations to Hadassah or to Congregation B’nai Zion. – The Chattanoogan dot com

OZ Correspondent – Nicole Wilson – Oxol Fluid Beef Co & Grandas (Cigar?) Pentimento – Montréal, QC

Sep 5th, 2013

by Frank.

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Dominion Medical Monthly & Ontario Medical Journal – January – December 1901 – Google Books

The Russell by Frills (1889)

This is a stretch but I am making a leap of faith that the GRANDAS on this pentimento is associated with the Montreal resident Jose Granda – cigar maker – immigrant from Spain. Below is the obituary of his daughter Mary Cook.

Obituary

COOK, Mary (nee Granda) August 10th, 1924 – October 13th, 2012

Passed away at Father Dowd Memorial Home at the age of eighty-eight after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s. Mary’s late father, Jose Granda, and his brothers were among the first immigrants from Spain to settle in Montreal in 1900 as founding partners in Jose Granda Cigars Ltd on St-Laurent Boulevard. She was predeceased by her brothers Pepe, Adolpho, Armando, Domingo and John, and by her sisters Feliz, Blanca, Luz and Paulina.

Beloved wife of Mr. Douglas James Cook and devoted mother to Linda (Bill Dalziel), Eric (Kathleen Casey) and Nina (Peter Walker). Loving Tita to Ryan, Kristin, Michael, Morgan, Andrew, Stuart, Michael, Maria, Evan and Casey. She will be greatly missed by her great-granddaughter Maya, her nieces and nephews as well as many other relatives and friends.

Family will receive condolences at Kane and Fetterly Funeral Home (5301, Decarie Boulevard (corner Isabella), Montreal, H3W 3C4) on Friday, November 2nd from 2 to 5 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. A memorial mass will be celebrated at St-Ignatius Parish (4455 West Broadway, Montreal) on Saturday, November 3rd at 10:30 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations to Alzheimer Society would be appreciated.

Published in The Gazette on October 24, 2012

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE – Civilization dot ca

Selling Smoke – How Canadian cigar boxes pitched their wares – 1883 – 1935 – Civilization dot ca

Canned Salmon & Tuna – Whitney Fidalgo Seafoods – Samuel Rubinstein – Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Aug 4th, 2013

by Frank.

2 comments

Samuel Rubinstein, 1917-2007 In 1946, Rubinstein bought the Fidalgo Island Packing Company and renamed his company. He took it public in 1969.¹ In 1977, Rubinstein sold 99% to Kyokuyo Ltd. a Japanese corporation. Plants were located at Anchorage, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Naknek, Petersburg, Port Graham, Uyak and others.²

Sam Rubinstein, 1917-2007: He shaped and supported city’s arts – Seattle PI – February 1, 2007
BUSINESS PEOPLE; Former Owner Returns To Whitney-Fidalgo Sam Rubinstein, who sold his Seattle fish processing company to the Japanese a decade ago, had expected to spend much of this winter golfing and playing tennis. – NY Times, Feb 13, 1984
Digital Collections of Carnegie Mellon University

In Bitter Memory of Edward I. Koch – Grossly Ineffective During Early AIDS Crisis – Mount Morris Baths—Steam & Turkish

Feb 2nd, 2013

by Frank.

2 comments

Taken April 1997 – From the book Fading Ads of NYC (History Press, 2011) © Frank H. Jump

Mount Morris Baths—Steam & Turkish
LEhigh 4-9004

According to Aviva Stampfer, a writer on the Place Matters website, a joint project of City Lore and the New York Municipal Art Society, the Mount Morris Baths was founded in 1898 by a group of Jewish doctors, when Turkish (hot air) baths were an important part of the religious and social traditions of Eastern European Jews. The doctors lived on the upper floors, using the basement as a professional spa. In the 1920s, Finnish immigrant Hugo Koivenon bought the baths and incorporated Finnish features such as “needle showers” and vitea treatments. East Harlem residents (especially those living in the neighborhood’s many cold water flats) came for the sauna, steam bath and therapeutic pool. This was the sign to the Mount Morris Baths as you looked down the stairs at its entrance on the basement level, below the street and somewhat out of view of the sidewalk passersby. The plastic illuminated sign that hung high up over its entrance and said “Turkish Baths—Mt. Morris— Men Only” harkened back to a time when there weren’t many legal challenges based on gender discrimination for entering a public place as this. As you walked in, there were safe-sex brochures and free condoms available, although the signs prohibiting explicit sex on the premises juxtaposed to the posters about safe sex seemed contradictory. The place had a musty smell, and I imagine that there were still some of the original water molecules circulating in the fetid, steamy mist since itsmaiden shvitz of 1898.

In a January 2003 article for the New York Times, journalist Alan Feuer provided the following more recent historical context about this bathhouse: Twenty years ago, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the gay bathhouse scene was nearly run out of town when state officials enacted a raft of laws banning many homosexual gathering places. The New St. Marks Baths in the East Village, for example, was shut in 1985 by the City Department of Health and was replaced nine years later by a video rental store.

The Mount Morris bathhouse, the only one in the city that caters to gay blacks, has been operating continuously since 1893 and survived the crackdown essentially for two reasons. First, it is far from the city’s gay meccas, on a quiet, unassuming block of Madison Avenue at East 125th Street, across the street from the offices of the Rev. Al Sharpton. Second, it has matured through the years, remaining a place to meet new people and enjoy a steam, but with the reality of the city health code’s prohibition on open sex. Apparently, the owner at the time, Walter Fitzer, a retired mechanical engineer and volunteer firefighter from Lynbrook, New York, seemed “an unlikely candidate [to Feuer] to be running a bathhouse known for attracting gay black men.” Notwithstanding, it was my experience growing up gay in New York City that most of the bars and bathhouses were owned by straight, white men. Fitzer told Feuer in his interview, “‘I always tell the clients, ‘If I can’t bring my wife down here, it isn’t right.’” Having been a patron of this establishment in the late 1980s when I was living in Harlem before it was destroyed by what the city called “urban renewal,” I couldn’t imagine anyone bringing their wife to Mount Morris. It was by no means a Plato’s Retreat, which was a sex club that opened in 1977 in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel that did cater to a more “ecumenical” crowd. One of my favorite understatements from Fitzer in this interview is: “Bathhouses have been gay since the days of the Greeks. It’s no big secret.” According to Feuer, Fitzer also claimed, “Harlem royalty like Joe Louis and Sam Cooke used to sweat here years ago, and it is nothing to see French tourists, straight businessmen and Hasidic Jews perspiring in the steam room, side by side.”

On the Place Matters website, Stampfer also presented the following: Mount Morris attracted a mixed clientele that included area residents and patients of nearby North General Hospital. Mount Morris became known as well for its emphasis on sex education, providing condoms, lubricant, and brochures, and also hiring an education director who held a lecture series five nights a week on topics of interest to gay men, and ran a popular G.E.D. program. Despite the discrepancies in the year this mikva or ritual Jewish bath was founded, for at least seventy of the over one hundred years this establishment was operating, it was frequented chiefly by gay African American men. Many people, like myself, wondered why this sauna was overlooked for nearly a decade when gay bathhouses were systematically closed during the ’80s by the New York City Department of Health in its hasty response to the AIDS crisis. And why had it survived unscathed? Didn’t New York City health commissioner Stephen Joseph and the Koch administration care enough about black male homosexuals? I don’t believe it was left open out of any consideration by Koch for the services Mount Morris provided. For the most part, the city was totally unprepared for the AIDS crisis when it hit with a vengeance.

I remember challenging Koch in August 1987 during his obligatory momentary appearance at the New York City chapter of Parents of Gays annual awards dinner when I asked him why there wasn’t a public service campaign on safe sex aimed at New York City’s LGBT community, as there was in San Francisco. Koch’s typical flippant response was, “Oh, the gays here know what to do.” So I began chanting, “You’re full of shit” and was joined by my friend Andy Humm and others until Koch stormed out of the banquet hall. Urban legend has it that later that evening on the news, it was said that Koch collapsed in Chinatown after overeating at one of his favorite restaurants.

In a recent telephone conversation with my longtime friend and journalist Andy Humm (Gay City News), he commented to me that it was fortuitous that Mount Morris had remained open as long as it did after the bathhouse closings since it provided much-needed services to its community. In addition, the pioneering and exemplary work of the Minority AIDS Task Force (1985), Harlem United (1988) and other grassroots community organizations that targeted black and Latino populations that weren’t publicly gay helped an ailing community that was for the most part in denial. Sadly, I was alerted by e-mails through my website of the sauna’s closing in 2003 and wondered why there wasn’t the same uproar in the gay community as there was over the closing of the Wall Street Sauna in February 2004. Of course, south of 110th Street there were private AIDS organizations like Gay Men’s Health Crisis (1981) and the AIDS Resource Center (Bailey House, 1983) that had been mobilized since the onset of the epidemic and provided services initially for self-identified gay men, usually white, with regard to education about AIDS prevention, medical and financial counseling and advocacy. Humm also reminded me that in the early days of ACT UP, there were two camps with totally divergent ideologies: one, those who wanted to aid the City of New York in creating guidelines for establishments where public sex was a potential in an attempt to keep them open; and two, those who wanted no restrictions at all on public spaces because any limitations would be an infringement of their personal freedoms.

Ultimately, both camps lost the battle because many of these sex establishments that provided the only reliable sources of HIV/AIDS prevention materials were closed in spite of their attempts to work with the failures of the Koch administration. Today, I have heard, the sex clubs are opening up again and are filled with young people who did not experience the horror of disease, loss and grief as we did as young people living through the height of the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s and ’90s. Remember, folks—the AIDS crisis is not over!

July 2011 © Frank H. Jump

Elaine Calenda – As I Always Will Remember Her

Sep 8th, 2012

by fadingad.

3 comments

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

Elaine Calenda & Sharon Weinstein at the Piers on West Street & Christopher in 1977 – Ramrod & Badlands in the background of two top pics – CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE © Frank H. Jump

Elaine Calenda – June 8, 1958 – August 24, 2012

Aug 26th, 2012

by fadingad.

11 comments

I will never forget you.

https://youtu.be/SNarvcWH7CM
Free the Bird… Bring out the juices.

Elaine Calenda and I met in high school in 1975. It was auditions for the John Adams High School musical play that year, which was Oliver. E (I always called her E) was standing in the back of the auditorium, hands in her pockets – stoic and stiff. She was wearing a woolen turtle neck sweater with overalls and construction boots and I thought “Who is that remarkable lesbian?” But I didn’t want to come off too strong so I sauntered over with my elephant bell denims, wide leather belt and chunky buckle and my platform shoes and I asked, “Hey, are you a Bette Midler fan?” E, rather startled that I just started talking to her and a bit self-conscious said she was as a matter of fact. How did I know she asked? Then I asked if “The Wizard of Oz” was her favorite movie and she looked aghast and again asked how I knew. Then I asked if she were a friend of Dorothy’s at which point she said, OK, Who the hell is Dorothy?

I leaned close to her so no one would hear and asked if she were gay. E looked down at her clothes and almost with tears in her eyes asked how I knew. I said, Come on girlfriend we have some catching up to do. E was a couple of years older than I and didn’t have a “boyfriend.” Her mom gave her a hard time for dressing so butch and not showing any interest in guys so E asked if I would go home with her and be introduced as her “boyfriend.” My mom already knew I was gay so I didn’t need a “cover” or beard. I was glad to help her out. We thought it would just be an act. Needless to say we fell madly in love anyway. We were inseparable for much of our late teens.

The dramatics teacher at John Adams found E an internship for her last semester at The Ensemble Studio Theatre in Manhattan with director Curt Dempster. Here E met many notable professionals in the theatre as she studied stage managing at Ensemble. I helped her build sets and break them down. It was an exciting time for us. E worked with Kevin Bacon, Amanda Plummer, Moogy Klingman and many other talented people in the theatre. Renown stage manager Barry Kearsley befriended E and we all used to “hang out.” Barry and E remained friends until his death in 1989 while stage managing M Butterfly. Through Barry, we met so many notable people in the theatre from Leonard Nimoy to Tommy Tune.

E very early on expressed a love for massage and shortly after high school she began studying at the Swedish Institute where she later became an instructor. I was lucky to be her willing patient during her studies. E would learn a new technique and I would be the recipient of all of her focus. It was here she met lifelong friend Sharon Weinstein, MD. E had an incredible talent and she went on to become a beloved instructor at the Boulder College of Massage in Colorado:

Elaine Calenda, AOS, RMT, NCTMB
Elaine Calenda has been a massage therapy educator for over 32 years. She graduated from the Swedish Institute in 1978 and gained clinical work experience at the Center of Osteopathic & Sports Medicine in New York City. In January 1992 she began teaching at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy and is currently the Academic Dean. She teaches Sports and Orthopedic Massage. Elaine contributed to the development of the Associate of Occupational Studies Program and has participated in multiple research projects including: “The Effects of Massage for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome” and “Chronic Tension Headache.” Elaine is dedicated to the advancement of the massage profession and writes for massage and CAM publications. She is a contributing author to the textbook Teaching Massage.

Elaine was the recipient of 2012 Chapter Meritorious Award by the American Massage Therapists Association.

The Chapter Meritorious Award honors an Active AMTA member for
his or her diligent volunteerism done in an altruistic (selfless) manner.

Nominators:
Deborah Hatch and Kimberlee Chatterley

Elaine Calenda

Elaine_Calenda

Reasons for Nomination
• We believe that the meritorious award should go to a person that has exhibited a long history of supporting the massage profession, the AMTA association and individual therapists along the way; Elaine Calenda is that person. She has provided this support without any expectation of recognition, she simply contributed as she was able and has made a tremendous impact on our profession.

• A massage educator for over 32 years, Elaine has not only taught massage but also modeled the quintessential values and behavior of a profession massage therapist. She is dedicated to increasing level of knowledge within our profession and models this through her involvement in our association, research projects, and development of community based programs such as supporting our returning veterans and introducing children to massage.

• Elaine has a history of volunteerism having served on the AMTA Chapter level as: 2nd Vice President (CO), delegate/2 terms (CO), Newsletter Editor (NY); and the AMTA National level serving on: the AMTA Special Committee on Standards of Care and the AMTA Workgroup to Enhance Culture. Additionally she was very active with the NCBTMB serving as: Item Writer (1994), Exam Committee member (1994-1996), Exam Committee Chair (1996-2001), Director (2001-2003).

• An acclaimed writer and researcher, her works have been published in “Therapeutic Massage” chapter for Alternative Medicine In Cardiac Illness, Dr. Michael Weintraub, ©2003, Therapeutic Massage” chapter for Alternative Medicine in Neurologic Illness, Dr. Michael Weintraub, © 2001. Elaine also has a artistic flair as demonstrated by the creation of two beautiful anatomical charts: Muscles in Motion – the muscular system and Osteography – the skeletal system, both produced through Digit Press Publishing.

Characteristics of Nominee
• Elaine has an incredible energy and passion for massage in general and AMTA in particular. I really believe that she would bleed amta blue. She champions our association to anyone within earshot and is happy to expound on the values of AMTA membership.

• An effective communicator, Elaine has the rare ability to speak with and listen to people of all walks of life. She is at ease with everyone and able to tailor the delivery of information into the way it will be best received. She is amazingly respectful of each personal and professional interaction, whether a colleague or a student or superior (if there is such a thing), each individual is treated with the same dignity and respect.

• She is open minded and always interested in new ideas and techniques. She volunteers enormous time to mentor and guide new teachers. For example, Deborah Bruce came to Elaine a few years ago and demonstrated a technique that Elaine found innovative. Elaine helped Deborah define her technique as Passive Fascial Restoration (PFR) and assisted her in creating teaching goals to offer this new technique to fellow therapists.

• Elaine’s background in teaching has proven invaluable; she has served as a brilliant liaison between our Chapter and schools within our State. She understands the dynamics and challenges of the school/education system and has been instrumental in building bridges between schools and our Chapter. For the past several years, Elaine has championed AMTA to Boulder College of Massage Therapy, this has resulted in our Chapter holding the Spring annual meeting at a low cost to the Chapter; a savings which has been passed on to our members.

• Elaine interjects humor into the classroom and the result is that the students retain more of the information shared. Ask her for the Julia Childs’ approach, you’ll be glad you did.

She is well known and respected in the massage community and a deserving candidate for the Meritorious Award.

AMTA National Position(s) (non-chair)

AMTA Special Committee on Standards of Care – Chair, 1998-2000, Committee member, 2000-present.
AMTA Workgroup to Enhance Culture – 2005-2006
National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork, Item writer, 1994, Exam committee member 1994-1996, Exam committee chair, 1996-2001, Director, April 2001-2003.

AMTA Chapter Position(s) (elected or appointed)

AMTA Colorado 2nd VP/Membership Chair 2008-present
AMTA Colorado Delegate 2000-2002
AMTA New York Chapter Newsletter Editor

Major Projects

Alternative Medicine Television Show but also modeled the
Benefits of Massage – first aired 1999

Radio Boulder, Benefits of Massage – aired May 1996

Radio Denver, Benefits of Massage –
Aired November, 1995

Weight Watchers Magazine Show –
Benefits of Massage – New York, NY – Aired October, 1986 Hosted by Lynn Redgrave.

Health Talk Radio Show, WBAI Radio, Brooklyn, NY – Benefits of Massage- April, 1980

Research Projects

Boulder College of Massage Therapy – The effects of massage on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, 2003 ongoing

Boulder College of Massage Therapy – The effects of massage on Headache, September, 2000.
With Drs. Weintraub and Rothman- effects of massage on victims of physical trauma – June 1990 to December 1991.

Altruistic Activities
• Supporting our Returning Troops –
• Exposing Children to Massage – teaching massage to children
• The Chanda Plan – benefiting people with spinal injuries.

Professional/Community Positions
Boulder College of Massage Therapy
6255 Longbow Drive, Boulder, CO.
Academic Dean, 2003 to present
Clinical Education Director, 1995-2003
Instructor of Orthopedic/Sports Massage
150- hour Certification Program and
Instructor of Medical Massage in the Associate of Occupation Studies Degree Program,
1992 – Present

Private Practice
1979 – Present

Digit Press Publishing
Anatomical Chart Design
Creative Director; 1995 – Present

Academy of Massage Sciences
20 West 20th Street, New York, NY
Director/Instructor – 1988-1991

Dr. Michael Weintraub
325 S. Highland Ave. Briarcliff, NY
Massage Therapist, June 1990 – Dec. 1991

New York State Education Department, Albany, NY. Item writer for the 1988 and 1990 State Board Exams for Massage Therapy.

Swedish Institute, Inc. 126 West 26th Street, New York, NY – Clinic Director and Medical Massage Instructor 1980-1986.

Center for Sports and Osteopathic Medicine, 41 East 42nd Street, New York, NY with Dr. Richard Bachrach
Massage Therapist, 1980-1985

Publications

Elaine is survived by her partner Michelle Howard of Longmont CO, her father Joseph Calenda of Ohio; her sister, Jacqueline Bailey of Farmers Branch, Texas, and brother Vincent Calenda of Ozone Park, Queens, N.Y. Her mother Luisa Orta Calenda died last month and was able to see Elaine to say goodbye.They had seen each other last on Mother’s Day.

You will always be in my heart.